1

We know nothing about the daily lives of our primitive ancestors. All we have are stone tools that they
had used. This phase is called Prehistory. It means; the long period before the beginning of history.
The only way we can assume how these prehistoric people may have lived is through Archaeology.
Archaeology is the study of physical remains of the historical past. Collection, careful observation and
division of things found underneath the ground is required. Experts of this field are called
Archaeologists.
2
Rallakaluva is a place in the Chitoor district of the present-day Andhra Pradesh. At Rallakaluva and in
places around the river Suvarnamukhi, stone tools of the prehistoric man were found. Such stone tools
were also found in Ananthapur and Kurnool districts. Hard rocks were broken into small and handy
pieces so that they could be used as weapons for hunting animals. The rocks were also broken in
oblong pieces so that they would be used to dig the earth for roots and tubers. Smaller rocks were
carved for grounding hard substances like the bones of animals and nuts.
3
Hundreds and thousands of these stone tools were found near river banks, natural caves and in open
areas of thickets. By means of selecting tools in the order of depth that they were found at,
archaeologists were able to divide the prehistoric period into three broad divisions. They used a Greek
word Lithikos for this purpose. Lithikos means a reference indicated by the use of stone as a tool. To
this word were added the Greek words for Early, Middle and New. The Early Stone-age is called
Upper Palaeolithic, the Middle Stone-age is called Mesolithic and the Late or New Stone-age is called
Neolithic.
4
In Andhra Pradesh, as elsewhere in South India, the Early Stone-age is roughly between 150,000 to
25,000 years from the present time. The Middle Stone-age is between 25,000 to 7,000 years. The New
Stone-age is from 7,000 to 2,500 years from our present time.
5
We have a better understanding of the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultures in Andhra Pradesh
through the excavations at cave sites in Kurnool district. Remains of animals and birds in form of
burnt or roasted bones, the remains of plants and flowers through pollen embedded in to the soil,
smaller tools, beads and other stone-ornaments were found here. Archaeologists have suggested that
the indigenous communities of the present, who have been living in and around the cave sites of
Kurnool, are good sources for having at least a vague idea of how Man in the prehistoric past could
have lived.
6
Present-day communities of Andhra Pradesh such as the Yanada, Yerukala, Boya, Kondareddy and
others still use certain primitive techniques in order to hunt. These communities have expert
knowledge of their environments by passing it on to each generation. They procure food through
hunting tools and traps that are made from raw material that is locally available. Bows and arrows,

nets, noose traps, gravity traps, spring traps and weirs. The extensive knowledge of these communities
includes fields like medicine and architecture also.
7
There are three different phases that we have noted about prehistory. However, they do not necessarily
follow one and other through clear order. There were occasions when Palaeolithic cultures lived along
the people who belonged to the Mesolithic and gradually became Mesolithic cultures. Mesolithic
cultures themselves had a huge variety of cultures. These are referred to as subcultures. In the
southern districts of Chittoor, Nellore and adjoining Cuddapah they lived in settlements by clearing
small patches in the forests. In the Godavari river belts they lived by the banks of small streams or
branches of the Godavari river. In the Krishna and Guntur districts they were settlements on the
foothills adjoining small thickets along with rivers and streams.
8
In the late phases of the Mesolithic there appear tools fashioned for tasks such as cutting fruits or
vegetables like knives and pointed tools that could slice or pierce specific things such as wood or tree
bark. These are called Microliths. They were made by working chipping the edges of stones in such a
way that they could be used as precision tool. These tools could also be used for hunting and
gathering food that would be stored thereby giving rise to more free time in order to pursue mental
skills such as making beads from precious and semi-precious stones. These beads and other ornaments
were used as marks of trade, very much the way we today use money, in order to develop
relationships with other groups of prehistoric people. Gradually, the Mesolithic cultures began greater
interactions with cultures from outside their regions and gave rise to the Neolithic.
9
The Neolithic cultures or Cultural Complexes are identified as such because the use of stone tools
became more precise. Highly worked and pointed stone-arrows, slings, sinking-stones used for nets
while fishing along with tools to produce the earliest-known varieties of pottery. But the most
important invention of this time was the use of sharp stone-implements for the tilling fields which
gave way to Agriculture. Agriculture was helpful because it gave Man the food security that was
important to sustain and live within groups of people.
10
Although the early Neolithic cultures of Andhra and elsewhere in south India probably practised
shifting cultivation or seasonal agriculture and cattle-grazing, the free time away from hunting,
gathering and agriculture gave way to pursuit of activities such as religion and rituals and more
creative use of language and arts such as star-gazing, time notation marking the passages of seasons,
eclipses and equinoxes, myth-making, singing and dancing. This was in other words the birth of
culture. This was possible because of food-security through agriculture and social innovation through
trade with other cultures. This marks the end of prehistory and the beginning of proto-history in
Andhra Pradesh.
11
The Neolithic people, unlike the Mesolithic people before them, appear suddenly. The word, Sudden,
is being used because the Neolithic people had appeared along with the know-how of metals. The
technology of metal making was much ancient in the world outside southern India. Such technology

makes it appearance in Central and North Maharashtra through a cultural complex called Jorwe
Culture. These people were using bronze and copper implements along with practising skilled and
settled agriculture. They were also cattle-grazers and soon certain nomadic elements within the Jorwe
Culture settled in Rayalaseema and adjoining areas of the Coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. By the
beginning of the First millennium Before the Christian Era (BCE) around 1200 to 1000 BCE, the use
of Iron along with copper and bronze became a prominent symbol of culture. The Stone-age was now
over. This phase in history is called Proto-history.
12
Proto-history is the phase in history which sets the stage for the beginnings of early history. It is a
transitory stage between prehistory and early history. Like we have noticed earlier, it took a long time
before Man became proficient in the use of tools and then more precise tools and the birth of
cultivation, storage and trade. Likewise it took time for Man to develop the idea of culture that was
complex and nuanced enough to sustain and to get acquainted to the world outside his reach. This
stage unlike prehistory did not take more than 1000 years in Andhra Pradesh.
13
During the Iron Age in Andhra Pradesh there was again another Sudden Appearance, like in the earlier
Neolithic Phase. The origin of these Sudden Strangers is not known, but they could have come from
what is today called, West Asia, probably from the region around Iran and Turkey. These people
quickly mixed with the locals initially in Gujarat, Maharashtra and then eventually Telengana and
Andhra Pradesh. They also travelled deeper into south India and merged with indigenous peoples of
Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala and further into the northern part of Sri Lanka. These Iron Age
people are recognized by the way they buried their dead. They used huge stones to mark the site of
their buried ancestors. Sometime they are buried their dead amongst their own habitations. These
were the Megalithic people. Their culture is called Megalithic Culture or the Megalithic Phase.
14
There are a variety of Megalithic burials. The common types are known as cairn circles, dolmenoid
cists, pit burials and menhirs. The Megalithic burials contain complete skeletons or skeletal fragments
and a lot of grave goods in pots, urns and sarcophagi. Sarcophagi are skilfully made through clay and
then fired so that they can contain the body much like a coffin. Ring stands, globular pots, bowls,
basins, deep bowls, dishes, platters of black and red pottery and black polished or glazed pottery were
interned along with the dead. There were also a profusion of iron objects like blades, javelins, spears,
axes, arrowheads, battle clubs, hatchets, sickles, billhooks, lamps, ladles, saucer lamps, bells,
horsebits, stirrups, copper, silver and gold objects and whole variations of precious and semi-precious
beads. These are a definitive proof that the people of the Megalithic Age believed in an after-life. This
is also proof that complex religion and ritual were an important quotient in the daily lives of these
people.
15
Well-preserved bones of animals and birds such as humped bulls, goats, pigs, fowls along with grains
of millets, wheat and rice, beans, barely, peas and cereals give us a fair detail of how the Megalithic
people sustained. Domesticated animals included the horse which makes its earliest appearance in the
culture of Andhra Pradesh. Bruisings and crude graffiti on burial capstones along with richly
decorated forms and shapes of burial pottery give us an insight into the fact that nuanced ways of life

and the refined urge to communicate and establish relationships with known people of their
immediate habitation and with the realm outside is very telling.
16
The Megalithic Phase in Andhra Pradesh is profuse in Rayalaseema and south Andhra up to the
Krishna Delta. The Godavari districts and the North Coastal Districts imminently lack any sign of
Megaliths. Historians have cited various reasons for the absence. But it could because of slow rate of
settlement in these regions compared to the accessibility of Rayalaseema and south Andhra to
Megalithic incursions. One cannot however forget that the Megalithic Phase overlaps with the early
historic phase of Andhra. Since the early historic phase is fairly well documented in the Godavari
districts and the North Coast, the real distinguishing feature of the Megalithic Phase may well be
assessed beyond the burial sites. Trade thereby is an important pointer.
17
Like we have observed in the past, trade is a very refined urge to connect with people living outside
ones zone of culture. The economic aspect of trade is only a by-product while the onus is on
innovation in order to broaden the expanse of ones realm. This aspect is highly remarkable during the
Megalithic Phase. The Megalithic people spread out their relations throughout the Indian subcontinent. The earliest Megalithic settlements in Maharashtra, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka made contacts with people from the northern India from the plains of the Ganga and
Yamuna rivers. This allowed the influx of people from north India to trade and relocate in the Deccan
region and eventually in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra.
18
By the 5th and 6th Century BCE the entire expanse of the Deccan was dotted by urban settlements.
They were the microcosm of the cities that were later to expand. Agriculture and cattle-grazing, also
together referred to as Agro-pastoralism was important in terms of food-security, the role of trading
grew in leaps and bounds. Fortified urban centres were found in a large number in Telengana and
Rayalaseema. There were at least two well documented fortifications at Dharanikota and Kesanapalli
near Nagarjunakonda belonging to the Megalithic Phase. Habitation sites much larger to the fortified
sites are profuse in the lower Krishna valley and along the River Penna. These largely urban
agglomerates were ruled by traders through Trade-guilds and Artisanal conglomerates.
19
If we study literature of the early Buddhists and the Jainas regarding their cultural interactions with
the people from south India, a broad idea emerges as to how the culture of the Megalithic people
through urbanization was slowly entering into the early historical phase. The Urban Agglomerates
were ruled by local chieftains, who were also hereditary priests forecasting weather, exorcising bad
omens, minting punch-marked silver coins, arming and organizing trade caravans to distant lands. At
their return, these chieftains who were caravan leaders were repaid in kind but largely in money. Cash
was probably lent to women on interest who formed associations called the Ghosthi. Men formed
corporations known as the Nigama. The Megalithic rituals of building stone-memorials for ancestors
were upheld.

20
Since the chieftains of these Urban Agglomerates were traders, accounts were maintained
meticulously. The first forms of writing were invented in the style of inventory lists. An inscription
from Bhattiprolu, in the present district of Guntur, belonging to the 3rd or 2nd Century BCE, attests
very well to this detail. Caravans returning south brought in Buddhist and Jaina monks from the north
of India. The old belief system became fused with the new ideas of religion. Buddhist and Jaina
congregations were patronized by the Nigama grew to become the first monasteries. The Ghosthi
grew politically. The chieftains, now with large armies and garrisons, became vassals of the kingdoms
ruling in the north, like the Mauryas, the Sungas and the Kanvas. Sometime in the late half of the 1st
Century BCE, Simuka, a local chieftain killed his overlord Kanva Susarma and established the
Satavahana lineage.
21
The Satavahana rule marks the beginning of the early historic phase. Historians regard the early
historical phase the broadening of power base that had already been seen during the protohistoric.
Kingdoms were based on lineage. Dynastic rulers inherited such ritual power and ruled in order to
stabilize their command over subjects, administrative divisions, economic centres, social order and
with other kingdoms that competed for territory. In the present Telugu-speaking areas Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh along with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala the form of power was
only symbolic and ritualistic in nature.
22
As we had observed earlier clan leadership and ritual power was dominant. Although we dont really
know much about the origin of the Satavahanas, we know that they probably came from Telangana or
eastern Vidharbha. They later expanded their territories to Maharashtra and Karnataka and towards
Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. What we certainly know about the Satavahanas is that they started
by being a clan who were also Chieftains and later vassals or representatives of kingdoms in the
North. So it is most likely that they had marriage alliances or ritual loyalties with other clans in the
areas where they expanded to rule. Like chieftains from the protohistoric phase they were also
hereditary priests of their clans. Therefore they claimed the status of Brahmins. In fact all the rulers of
early historic period in the Deccan claimed to be Brahmins in view of their priestly status.
23
Clans loyal to the ruling dynasty held real power in the regions. The Rathikas in the western Deccan,
the Bhumakas in Saurashtra, the Abhiras in south and central Deccan, the Kuras and Kadambas in
Karnataka, the Hiranyakas in Rayalaseema were some important ruling clans. In Andhra, there were
coins found of a clan called the Sadas that probably were loyal to the Satavahanas who at that time
were ruling from Pratishtana in Maharashtra. The Sadas could have been originally from the North
Coastal Andhra where they were representatives for the Chedi king called Kharavela, who ruled from
central Orissa and was a contemporary of the Satavahanas. Along with the ruling dynasty, the
aristocratic women belonging to the ruling house and various regional clans were very powerful since
they invested wealth into trading guilds and Buddhist and Jaina monasteries like in the protohistoric
past. Through such wealth and prestige trade, religion and the liberal arts flourished.

24

The Jainas were probably the earliest religions that migrated to south India from the north. Greek
sources from the time of the early Mauryas talk about naked ascetics on the banks of the Rivers
Tungabhadra and Krishna. The first Mauryan king Chandragupta Maurya relinquished the throne to
come to Sravanabelgola to live the life of an adept during his last days. Early Satavahana rulers were
probably Jainas. The laity or the householders who followed Jaina percepts were some of the richest
traders in south India of the early historic phase. The Jainas of south India were essentially of the
Digambara sect. They had a wide presence in Karnataka, Rayalaseema, Telangana and North Costal
Andhra. The Digambaras contributed immensely to the study of language through etymology and
mathematics. Kundakundacharya, the great Jaina scholar was responsible for the earliest strata of
Syadavada and Anekantavada that developed later in north India. Unlike the Buddhists, the Jainas
remained dominant through a long period of history, well into the late-Medieval period in Andhra
Pradesh.
25
Buddhists were predominantly saturated in the Coastal districts of Andhra, along with a small
presence in Rayalaseema. The Buddhists of the early historic period in Andhra were distinctly local
since the very beginning. They had their own set of monastic regulation, scriptures and fairly
elaborate sense of rituals. Apart from this they propounded and produced some of the most original
and nuanced literature. The massive Pragnyaparamita and Madhyamika literature attributed to the
mystical figure Nagarjuna, the Ratnagotragarbha Sutras of the Yogacara School, the canonical
commentaries of Buddhaghosha and several treatises on Tantra of the earliest kind belong to the
Buddhist schools in Andhra. The Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda idiom of sculpture is world
renowned. The Buddhist spread to south-east Asia can be singularly sourced to the contribution of
monks from Andhra through sea-trade.
26
The experience of religion that is relevant locally was the mainstay not only of Buddhism and
Jainism. The early Saiva sects and Brahmanical religion were based on an underlying principle of
evolved contexts. The Brahmins who were given land grants since the Satavahana period were
attached to local administrative process of taxation. This meant that a large percentage of local
priestly clans who had their base going back to the protohistoric period were being given Vedic
legitimacy by adapting their modes of worship. By the late decades of the Ikshavaku rule through the
Salankayana regime shrines for local gods such as Pushpabhadra, Kapoteswara, Ashtabhuja,
Vaikartana and Chitraradhaswamy added to a new pantheon of gods. These local deities were later
incorporated in to the Puranas as forms of Siva, Vishnu and Surya. Brahmins who were allocated
lands were writing new Puranas along with ritual texts called the Agamas and the Dharmasutras.
27
The predominantly cosmopolitan nature of the Satavahanas was largely due to trade. But it is
important to redefine trade in this epoch by using three overlapping parameters. Firstly, the expansion
of agricultural operations primarily in the Western Deccan of the early Satavahanas. This spread later
to the Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Secondly, the consistent flow and free circulation of currency
which indicates internal trade based on agricultural produce. Thirdly, the overwhelming flow of
Roman coinage through trade and growth of urban centres. All the three parameters were inclusive
and complimentary. This prosperity can be gauged by the cultural achievements of the early historic
era. Therefore, trade cannot be seen only through the lens of external or foreign trade alone. The

affluence during the early Satavahana period was also one of the main reasons for the attack and
invasion of the Sakas or the Western Kshatrapas.
28
The Western Kshatrapas were vassals or feudatories of the Kushanas, a central Asian tribe, who ruled
large tracts of north India. The Kshatrapas initially could have strong in Saurashtra and north
Maharashtra. They attacked the port cities of the Western Deccan and gradually usurped the capital at
Pratishtana. Probably during this phase of occupation, the Satavahanas could have shifted their capital
to Dhanyakataka in Coastal Andhra, where they already had a strong base. Eventually, Gautamiputra
Satakarni and his son Vasisthiputra Pulamayi would reclaim the western Deccan but with diminishing
returns. The Kshatrapas invaded the western Deccan and the Satavahanas could never recover. By the
end of the 2nd Century CE the Satavahanas were declining rapidly.
29
The last known capital city of the Satavahanas was the new city of Vijayapuri that was later known as
Nagarjunakonda in the Palanadu area of the Guntur district. Chandra Sati, possibly the last
Satavahana ruler was succeeded by the first Ikshavaku ruler Santamula. Beginning in the late 3 rd
century CE the Ikshavakus ruled almost the entire Rayalaseema and Coastal districts with the possible
exception the extreme north coast. After a rule of 150 years, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra were
ruled by the Pallavas of Kanchipuram along with list of minor dynasties. These were the
Brihatpalayanas, the Ananda Gotrikas, the Salankayanas and finally by the Vishnukundins. The
essence of power and the models of administration were similar to the Satavahanas. The territorial
expanse however diminished immensely. By the end of end of the 4 th century CE, Roman trade had
completely declined.
30
During the Salankayana regime Samudragupta, the Gupta king of north India staged a military
incursion into coastal Andhra. Apart from the Allahabad eulogy of the king and his mention of the
kingdoms ruling at that time, we have no major information about the effects of this so-called
conquest. It is not clear if the Vakataka feudatories of the Guptas who were ruling at that time from
Vidharbha and Telangana had a greater role on coastal Andhras economy, especially maritime trade.
The Vishnukundins who ruled after the Salankayanas focused on territorial expansion more than any
other dynasty that ruled Andhra. A similar desire of expansion is also clear from the Pallavas in the
south. At the fag end of the early historical period Pallava feudatories were ruling Rayalaseema. A
similar situation prevailed in the North Coastal Andhra.
31
Feudatory regimes like anywhere else brought in a fractured power base. This situation was further
complicated with wars and skirmishes that altered the social base of Andhra Pradesh by the end of the
early historic period. Agriculture that used to complement internal trade became the largest source of
tax revenue. Although internal trade was existent it was definitely not thriving. Maritime trade was
reduced to select pockets. The depletion of agrarian produce and political uncertainty changed the
social situation altogether. Buddhist and Jaina monastic establishments were abandoned on a large
scale. Local cults and ritual congregations that were loyal to war lords and feudatories became order
of the day. These conditions ushered in the medieval era in Andhra Pradesh.
32

The early medieval period in Andhra was distinguished by war and violence. The same conditions
prevailed throughout south India, but Andhra was acutely affected. We had seen in the early historic
period that the Satavahana dominion had diminished into smaller kingdoms. The survival of these
kingdoms was based on feudatories and their loyalties towards their overlords. In order to secure such
loyalty the kings parcelled off large tracks of lands to feudatories in coastal Andhra. The essential
purpose behind these grants was to secure loyalty. So they were ritualised by symbolically affecting
them as Brahmadheya or Brahmin land grants.
33
The lands granted to Brahmins or even Buddhist monasteries in some cases were primarily owned by
the local feudatory. There were two ways through which it effected the kingdom. The tax revenue
would not reach the administrative corpus since the land yield had to be used to feed soldiers that the
feudatory had to maintain on behalf of the king. The surplus of the land yields were either usurped by
the feudatory or were independently put to trade. In either case ultimately the burden of feudatories
left the royal coffers barren. This situation led to internecine wars aimed at increasing territory. The
devastation of war increased over a period of time.
34
The conditions in southern Andhra and Rayalaseema were no different. Although not affected by land
grants and decrease of tax revenue, these areas became transitory zones between competing and larger
territorial armies of the Pallavas of Kanchipuram, the Western Chalukyas and the Western Gangas.
The militarization of smaller kingdoms based on feudatories and militarization of armies that had
large territories wasnt always the same. Although cost and effects of war might be devastatingly
similar, kingdoms with larger armies at least had the resources necessary to fight protracted battles. In
effect, all Telugu-speaking areas of the early medieval period were perpetually crushed by
militarization between the 7th to 11th centuries CE.
35
We see increase of written sources in form of inscriptions both stone and copper-plate records in the
early medieval period. But the period in question is a dizzying variation of feudatories, subfeudatories, war-lords, expanding clans and specific families. They were all embroiled in war and
expansion with ever shifting loyalties towards larger or smaller kingdoms. There was a trickle-down
effect in the militarization process. Overlords to the lowest foot soldiers were all craving for identity
and prestige. This brought in two unprecedented changes. First, ritual legitimacy to form exalted
genealogies through Gotra led to consolidation of caste identities. The protohistoric and early historic
clan-order totally disappeared. Second, the valorisation of violence in a military situation altered the
diversity of social experience.
36
Territorial expansion, unlike in the early historic period was linked to the exploration of lands that had
low population density. Such a strategy could allow kingdoms to cut administrative costs and bolster
revenue to agrarian trade. Telangana and Rayalaseema along with southern Andhra were habituated
continuously since prehistoric times. Although they are semi-arid or plateau lands respectively, they
were always attached to fertile lands to the west. The valleys of the Western Ghats in case of
Rayalaseema and the black-soil lands of Vidharbha and Marathwada in case of Telangana. The
Satavahanas and their successors in the early historic period ruled these areas combined as a single

unit. In the early medieval period they either became contested zones of transition or specifically
selected as feudatory lands attached to larger kingdoms such as the Western Chalukyas or the
Rashtrakutas.
37
The North coastal districts including the East Godavari district were an indelible part of Kalinga and
were always prone to invasion or extensions of rule depending on the strength of the sovereigns. The
fertile middle lands between the Rivers Krishna and Godavari referred to as Rendu Yerala Nadimi
Vishaya during the early medieval period was considered to be a new land of attraction. Vengi
corresponding roughly to the present town of Peddavegi in the West Godavari district was developed
as a capital since the days of the Salankayanas in the early 4 th Century CE. The Western Chalukyas
focused on occupying this area.
38
Pulakesin II of the Western Chalukyas who was already in war with Pallavas of Kanchipuram
expanded his kingdom by putting an end to the rule of the Vishnukundins and their allies in Coastal
Andhra. His brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana was put in charge on the new territory in 624 CE. Over a
period the new lineage became the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi. Rayalaseema and southern Andhra
were under the Renati Cholas who initially were loyal to Eastern Chalukyas kept shifting their
loyalties depending on the situation. By the 9 th Century CE, the Pallavas of Kanchipuram were a spent
force and were succeeded by the Cholas.
39
The Eastern Chalukyas and that time were mired in family feuds with a succession of weak kings. In
973 CE, Danarnava, the reigning sovereign was assassinated by the Renati Chola feudatory, Bhma
who usurped the throne. The successors of Danarnava fled to the court of the Cholas and sought help.
Eventually, the Cholas ceased the opportunity by installing Saktivarma, the son of the slain
Danarnava. This was the beginning of the Chola ascendency in Andhra and elsewhere in south India.
This was to have wide-ranging repercussions ushering in a new chapter in the medieval period.
40
The Pallavas of Kanchipuram, the longest lineage of kings from roughly the 3 rd Century CE to the late
9th Century had come to an end. So did the Western Chalukyas of Badami and the Rashtrakutas of
Manyakhet. Almost 4 centuries of war had desiccated south India. The Cholas secured the territories
inherited from the Pallavas and made steady strides to put the eastern and western sea-boards of the
Indian peninsula under their control. Rajaraja and his son Rajendra Chola spread out naval forces
across into south-east Asia and by the early 11th Century CE, they established trading stations in south
China under the Northern Sung dynasty. The Abbasid Caliphate in the west to the Sung Dynasty in the
far-east ushered an era of Indian Ocean trade that forever changed the geo-political status of South
India.

41

The Cholas were successful in finally putting an end to war and civil strife in south India at large and
especially in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra. There were two important results of the Chola rule for
Andhra. The integration of the Chola royalty with Eastern Chalukyas through marital alliances
increased Tamil influence in the Andhra. Although Eastern Chalukyas were the ruling house
nominally, power was entirely vested in the Cholas. The feudatories did exist but were largely
ineffective and cut to size. The other most important result of the Chola rule was the growth of
Agrarian trade in leaps and bounds. Maritime trade in the Indian Ocean was the major reason behind
the phenomenal growth.
42
The Cholas restructured their administrative apparatus to accommodate the changed times. The took
effective measures to influence tax revenues in places like Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra. This lead
to a system of irrigation called the Dasabandhanas and Water Tank management. The mounting
surplus yield was redirected to market-towns in order to foster internal trade. The Chola policy of
allowing wide-scale integration of merchant guilds into trans-regional and transnational corporations
across south India created a tax-revenue net that led to greater interest on behalf of the merchant
guilds to increase the volume of maritime trade.
43
Trade guilds were not new to Andhra. We had seen earlier the role played by guilds in the early
historic phase. The bitter experience of wars in the preceding centuries before the Chola regime were
now effective integrating their clusters into large corporations like the Nanadesikas, Ayyanvole and
Manigramam. The Chola-inspired administration acted as a policy facilitator between the feudatories,
traders and the religious institutions. This model of administration made it easier for kingdoms to
control the state-apparatus. The trading communities were given greater autonomy. An autonomy
which was hitherto enjoyed solely by feudatories and religious institutions.
44
Sub-regional, intraregional, transregional and maritime trade were so well ordered that by the late 11 th
century CE, these corporations owned large fleets of ships, an integrated bureaucracy and their own
army to protect their interests throughout the south Indian region. The taxation regime was cleared of
the interference of the army and the feudatories. Bitter wars were still being fought, feudatories were
still a menace but growth of the trading conglomerations added a new dimension, both to the economy
and society at large.
45
The feudatories in the meanwhile emerged as powerhouses after the fall of the Cholas. The
Sundarapandyas of Madurai, the Hoyasalas of Belur and the Yadavas of Devagiri, were all feudatories
of the Cholas and the Western Chalukyas. By mid-11 th Century CE they were all ruling their own
kingdoms. The Kakatiyas of Warangal, once the powerful chieftains of the Chalukyas of Kalyan, were
one among them. The above-mentioned kingdoms were roughly ruling the present regions of
Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively. The Kakatiyas were probably the first kingdom
to integrate the Telugu-speaking areas into one administrative region.

46

The Kakatiyas were acutely aware of the advantages of the new conditions created through maritime
trade. In very carefully strategized moves, they extended their empire to cover a major portion of the
coastal districts of Andhra. Feudatories were incorporated into military and administrative roles
through the system of Nayankara, tank restoration and proliferation in southern Andhra and
Rayalaseema were taken up and traders were given sops to enable mutual trust. Since maritime trade
with south-east Asia and China were dominated by the Tamil merchants, ruling houses of Andhra and
Kalinga made region-specific advantages to merchant corporations.
47
Trading was until then largely based on agrarian produce. This included grain, oil and other agro byproducts. Plantations provided the secondary volume of trade, which included spices, roots, tubers
and nutmegs. The third component consisted of forest produce. Wood, resin, animal skins and
aromatics were traditionally traded from the Western Ghats and a minor section from the Eastern
Ghats. During the Kakatiya period the forest produce was extended largely. This led them to direct
conflict with the tribes of the region. The famous Sammakka and Saralamma Jatara is sacred to almost
all the tribes of the Telugu speaking regions, which epitomizes the conflict with Kakatiya power
around the late decades of the 12th Century CE.
48
The other significant component that made its mark during the Kakatiya period was the inclusion of
cloth manufacturing on a large scale. Although in the Tamil and Kannada speaking regions the cloth
manufacturing base was already in vogue during the Chola Imperial period, it was the Kakatiya rulers
who enabled a policy of cloth export based on trifurcation. Cotton was being exported since the early
historic period but the merchant guilds during the Kakatiya period separated raw cotton, yarn and
woven cloth as three distinct categories. The other stride was the export of raw metal like wootz steel,
bronze and silver in form of ingots that bolstered the international market for these products.
49
This new impetus on trade created a social system that allowed cultural autonomy to the landed
gentry. The gentry, called the Vellalas in the Tamil areas, were referred to as Satsudras in Andhra. The
Satsudras became not just upwardly mobile but were also able to challenge the Varna domain of the
Brahmanical social order, although most scholars today doubt if such a social order ever existed in
south India. The Brahmanical Social Order or the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra four-fold
division did not seem to exist in its hierarchical sense although nominally the terms do exist. Fact
remains that the ruling houses, the feudatories, the landed gentry, the military officials and the traders
of the medieval and late medieval periods were all Satsudras.
50
Highly embellished, large temples in south India were store houses of wealth and were nodes of
economical distribution of wealth. Ideally, the vision behind the structure of a temple was to have an
egalitarian approach.. The geographic and cultural diversity of Telugu-speaking people did not allow
for a uniform social vision that could mend divisions in form of caste, although we cannot exaggerate
the consequences of such divisions. This period of outward prosperity drew the attention of
adventurers who had established themselves in northern India at that time. In 1310, Malik Kafur, the
military general of Allauddin Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate attacked Warangal. Three more such

devastating raids later, in 1326 the Kakatiya lineage collapsed. It is said that the last Kakatiya
sovereign Prataparudra II while being held prisoner committed suicide on the banks of the Narmada.
51
Although there is a disparity between analyses of Kakatiya and post-Kakatiya inscriptions amongst
scholars amongst whom the work of Cynthia Talbot is considered outstanding. It is generally pointed
out that through the evidence of the traditional works of Vedic Brahmanism on which vast amounts of
commentary were produced which describes society as static, subject to the strictures of the caste
system. The facts remain more discursive and complex. The material culture, production of literature
and the perpetuation of what was considered traditional had changed considerably during the Kakatiya
period and such a trend sustained itself with ever more vigour much into the pre-colonial times.
Kakatiya and Post-Kakatiya inscriptions including the Vijayanagara period depict a far wider range of
social interaction suggesting that the reality was far more fluid and very different from the
conventional homogenised image.
52
The population became more settled in geographic terms. The growth of an agricultural peasant class
subsumed many tribal people who previously had been nomadic. The nexus of politics and military
was a significant feature of the era, and the Kakatiya recruitment of peasants into the military did
much to create a new warrior class, to develop social mobility and to extend the influence of the
dynasty into areas of its kingdom that previously would have been untouched. The entrenched landed
nobility that had existed prior to the dynasty found its power to be on the wane; the royal gifting of
lands formerly in the possession of nobles to people of lesser status did much to effect this dilution.
53
Caste itself seems to have been of low importance as a social indicator. The ruling class considered
themselves to be Sudras and were egalitarian in nature and promoted their subordinate warrior-chiefs
who were similarly egalitarian and spurned the Kshatriya rank. Anyone, regardless of birth, could
acquire the Nayaka title to denote warrior status. There is also little evidence that Kakatiya or PostKakatiya society paid much regard to caste identities although occupation does appear to have been an
important designator of social stature, the inscriptions suggest that people were not bound to any
single occupation by birth.
54
The rise of the Satsudra warrior class as possessing the divine right to rule despite their status as the
fourth class in the Vedic order shows that system of Varna had never penetrated into south India.
Sanskrit and its cultural associations were never able to lower the ability of the Satsudra power
structures to regain and signify the language with precise articulation without altering the status of
Telugu. Telugu had successfully taken the place of Prakrit both in terms of literature and
administration. During the Kakatiya period Sanskrit made a resounding reappearance in terms of the
language of treatises.
55
Jayapa Senani, a military general of Ganapati Deva wrote a treatise on dance called Nrutyaratnavali.
This tendency of writing treatises by authors of Telugu origin followed well into the post-Kakatiya
and Vijayanagara phases. Pedakomati Vemareddy of Kondavidu wrote two works on poetics and

music called Sahityachintamani and Sangitachintamani. His predecessor Kumaragiri of Kondavidu,

whose wife Lakumadevi was a dancer, wrote Vasantarajeeyam, a work on dance. Simhabhupala of
Rachakonda wrote Rasarnavasudhakaram, a treatise on rasa and rules of dramaturgy. His court poet
Visvesvara wrote Chamatkarachandrika a work on rhetoric. Vamana Bhatta wrote Sabdaratnakara, a
dictionary with phonetics. Vallabhacharya wrote Lilavatiganitam, a treatise on mathematics. Most of
these works were courtly productions that were written by kings or poets directly under their
patronage. Sanskrit was reconfigured to make it an accessible and utilitarian medium of expression
surpassing its confines of divinity. This is also a glowing example of egalitarianism witnessed during
the Kakatiya and post-Kakatiya phase.
56
The period after the Kakatiyas was followed by a few decades of political chaos. In northern India the
Khiljis were succeeded by the Thuglaks who continued their campaign in the south. Important trading
stations like Rajahmundry were sieged by the Mohammed Bin Thugluk, who was then known as
Ulugh Khan. In this scenario a confederation of former Kakatiya generals under the leadership of
Musunuri Kapayya Nayakudu drove the invaders away and established their own regimes.
57
Three distinctive kingdoms evolved in this period. The Reddys of Kondavidu, Padmanayaka Velama
chieftains of Rachakonda and the Vijayanagara kingdom with the Sangama dynasty led by Harihara
Raya and Bukka Raya with Hampi as their capital. Around the same time Allauddin Bahaman Shah of
Turkic origin from Iran revolted against Mohammed Bin Thugluk and founded the Bahamani
Sultanate in the Deccan. The Bahamanis were later divided into five lineages; Nizamshahi of
Ahmednagar, Qutb Shahi of Golconda, Baridshahi of Bidar, Imadshahi of Berar, Adilshahi of Bijapur.
58
All the post-Kakatiya rulers including Allauddin Bahaman Shah were fairly well-exposed to the
working of Islamic rule due to their tenures under Mohammed Bin-Thugluk. Each of these sovereigns
emulated practices successfully in their domains under whom the social mobility of the courtly nobles
and the trading classes were clearly established. Decentralisation and the taxation practices of the
Islamic world were yielding good results. Overland trade routes from the Turkish central Asia and
Iran and the maritime trade linked through the Indian Ocean ushered in prosperity. By the end of the
15th century the Portuguese established trade, linking Western Europe to the loop.
59
Port trading became a significant economic activity during the 14 th and 15th centuries. Islamic traders
under the patronage of both Hindu and Muslim rulers introduced cash economies and Islamic banking
practices that led artisans and agrarian communities to prosper. Persian and Turkish traders were well
entrenched in Mandasa in Srikakulam, Bheemunipatnam, Kasimkota near Vishakhapatnam, Korangi,
Komaragiripatnam, Daksharamam, Nagaram, Sringavriksham in the Godavari districts, Machilipatam,
Nizampatnam, Motupalli, Kottapatnam and Myapadu in south Andhra. Inland trading was linked
through Madurai, Hampi, Hyderabad and Paithan. Woven cloth, rice, silk yarn, indigo, saltpetre used
in gunpowder, precious stones and tempered steel were majorly traded from Andhra.

60

The strong revenue nets under the Reddys of Kondavidu and later the Vijayanagara rulers forced the
Islamic traders in the areas mentioned above to trade in tandem with local princely representatives and
through the established Trade guilds which they quickly became part of. Products like cloth-weaving,
block-printing, glass blowing, rope making and Ship-building saw resurgences due to the flow cash
that was not charged of interest, since it was banned under Islamic law and Usury, lending on interest,
was considered a cardinal sin. The tight grip of the rulers over revenue did not allow large scale
profiting for Islamic traders. Trade stations across the Bay of Bengal into south-east Asia had to
expand. This expansion benefitted the traders in Andhra.
61
Like mentioned before, the Satsudras grew as a warrior class and some of them had huge trade
interests. This combined with military acumen and political strategy was the potion that defined most
of the successful kings of the Reddy Dynasty and the Padmanayaka Velma lineage. The success of
both these sovereigns is foreshadowed by that of the Vijayanagara kings who ruled a much larger
empire and thereby could stand much stronger to their opponents the Bahamanis and the Gajapathis of
Orissa. The fabled prosperity of the period and the military victories through the effective
continuation of the Nayankara system started during the Kakatiyas made the Vijayanagara Empire the
strongest since the end of the Cholas. The most famous of them was Krishnadevaraya, about whom
there is more fiction then fact available to history.
62
Krishnadevaraya was the son of Tuluva Narasa Nayaka, an army chieftain under the preceding Saluva
dynasty. He succeeded his weak half-brother in 1509 and spent the rest of the 20 odd years of his
regime in a series of military and political intrigues that established the Empire fraught with enemies.
His seminal understanding of the combination of factors like military, trade and politics made him a
cultural figure especially in the Telugu country unrivalled by any other sovereign. Telugu literature
flourished during his reign, forever etching Krishnadevaraya as the penultimate patron to language
that any culture can fathom. This multifaceted genius and ability to hold power in such ambivalent
times makes Krishnadevarayas legend unprecedented. The lack of such genius in his successors was
precisely the reason that within less-than three and half decades after his death in 1529, the glory days
of Vijayanagara was over.
63
Krishnadevaraya much like his Satsudra predecessors, Pedakomati Vemareddy and Simhabhupala was
the ideal template that fits an astute of variables of a changing time. The question of Change is a very
pertinent one. What is change? Especially, what do we mean by change at the fag end of the latemedieval time in south India. Although historical change is a complex issue, we can deduce to certain
predominant tendencies of that period. In the early 16 th Century CE the world economy was being
integrated.
64
This integration of south India and the Telugu-speaking world into a much larger paradigm was not
only because European had started discovering new lands, such as the discovery of the Americas and
the sea-route to India. Much before this change occurred the Chinese, South East Asians, the Islamic
cultures and the East African nations were drawn into formal exchange even by the 12 th Century as we
have seen earlier. Western Europe through the discovery of the Americas coupled with their own

complexities joined the loop of the Indian Ocean trade. The Vijayanagara Empire being at helm of
power in peninsular India became an important notch in world trade. This in itself was not new.
65
Maritime time trade had already reached its zenith in the Chola Period. Trade at the period was only
restricted to the burgeoning of trade guilds and their growth as an ancillary power. The Reddys of
Kondavidu, the Gajapathis of Kalinga and the Vijayanagara sovereigns were having personal stake in
the proceedings of trade which was in emulation of the Islamic model of governance. Trade also
results in the expansion of cultural influence which explains the Change or shift in history.
66
The ideals of a ruling sovereign therefore had shifted. The king was not only seen as a ritual
powerholder and a patriarch he was increasingly being seen as a cultural phenomenon. The ruling
monarch was seen an exalted personality, an embodiment of human traits such as physical prowess,
pleasure pursuit, hyper-ambition and cunning. It would be nave to think that kings prior to the latemedieval did not possess such human traits. But by the 16 th Century these qualities were not only open
to view but were seen as ideal and celebratory.
67
Human nature was now the focus of everyday life with physical objects were exceedingly viewed in
the backdrop of pleasure and sense of aesthetics. Cult symbols, tutelary gods and goddesses became
autonomous. Varaha, Virupaksha, Veerabhadra, Padmavathi, Kanakadurga, Kanyakaparameswari and
a host of other deities became mainstream manifestations of Vishnu, Siva and Sakti. Early medieval
temples such as Mukhalingam, Srikurmam, Simhachalam, Daksharamam, Palakollu, Vijayawada,
Kotappakonda, Bhairavakona, Tripurantakam, Siddhavatam, Yaganti and Ahobilam were part of a
new circuit of pilgrimage. The importance of Tirumala and its bountifulness became the focus of an
entire Telugu subculture of performing arts. The best example of this shift in human paradigm is well
illustrated in the paintings and sculpture of Lepakshi. The divine and the ordinary wear rich brocades,
heavily embellished jewellery, Islamic tessellations are clearly demarcated on the murals and the
temple architecture itself shows heavy Islamic influence.
68
The repertories of objects getting into the Rayalaseema and Andhra in the middle decades of the 16 th
Century were unprecedented. Chillies, Guava fruit, Tomatoes and Potatoes from South America,
Musk melons, custard apples, dry fruit, grapes and Paprika from Central Asia, Batavias, Cumin seeds
and several variation of Cucumber from south-east Asia and most interestingly Peanuts from
Mozambique spread around so quick and profuse, that Peanut Oil was used for lighting temple lamps.
The first miniature globes were sought by royal houses, the first numerical clocks, telescopes and
medical manuals in Persian, Portuguese and German were procured. Weather-wanes, ceramic ear
plugs for the hearing impaired, central Asian and western musical instruments, surgical devices,
vellum paper notebooks, astrolabes, wax candles, rubber waterbeds, calligraphic brushes of different
sizes and the thinnest range of sewing needles made their first appearance.

69

By the end of the 16th Century, urbanity was no longer associated with the physical structure of the
city. Places like Kadiri, Nandyala, Kovuuru, Tenali, Movva, Narasapuram, Rajahmundry and Bobbili
had a cosmopolitan air about them. Poets, dancers, Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic scholars, master
weavers, sculptors and architects were finding inspiration in each others craft since they essentially
exchanged common patronage from the existing military and trading elite. The access to finished
goods, the building of mutually beneficial networks and exchange of ideas regarding trade, religion
and politics ushered an era of information. The Thanjavur Oriental Manuscript library is stacked with
prose manuals in Telugu on subjects as varied as medicine, litigation, taxation, cattle-breeding, swordmaking, irrigation and geometry. Even more varied information is available from Persian manuals
about the Telugu speaking areas, especially the north coastal districts of Vijayanagaram and
Srikakulam. This unprecedented access to information and the percolation of urbanity as mind-set was
the ambience that prompted growth of trading interests with various western European nations such as
Portugal, Holland, France, Denmark and England.
70
After the Battle of Tallikota in 1565, the Vijayanagara State-system broke into smaller segments with
bases at Kalahasti, Senji, Thanjavur and Madurai in the Tamil country. These places along with Keladi
and Chitradurga in Karnataka and Kandy in Sri Lanka were ruled by Balija military chieftains of
Telugu origin who became naturalised speakers of Tamil, Kannada and Sinhala respectively. The
Qutubshahis of Golkonda came to rule large tracts of the Telugu-speaking areas with the exception of
the Krishna and Godavari Deltas. The Gajapathis of Orissa gripped the Deltaic plains under their
control. The local chieftains continued to pay tribute to the Qutubshahi sovereign. State penetration in
these areas as well as in Rayalaseema became more palatable given the prospect of trade and the
overall relaxation of taxes on traded goods.